


New Year's 1985

by earlybloomingparentheses



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Ficlet, Lily Lives AU, Multi, Raising Harry, from tumblr, sort of almost poly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 07:02:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17137199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earlybloomingparentheses/pseuds/earlybloomingparentheses
Summary: They sleep three in a bed now, Sirius Remus Lily, an improbable sequence.





	New Year's 1985

They sleep three in a bed now, Sirius Remus Lily, an improbable sequence. More improbably still, a sequence unbroken since that horrible, miraculous Halloween night had ended the war and, thanks to a midnight load of laundry that had stopped Lily getting to the bedroom before the fatal curse, reconfigured two pairs into a triangle. Once upon a time, Sirius had barely tolerated Lily, and Lily had barely tolerated him right back; and now they make each other coffee and speak as one voice when Harry requests his own broom. _Not till you’re six._ And Remus nods sternly when Harry turns imploring eyes on him with unquenchable hope—then winks when the others look away.

Three in a bed. There are few boundaries between them now. At first it was an arrangement born of bewildered grief and necessity, the three of them taking turns getting up with Harry during those first horrible sleepless weeks. Sometimes they would all wake at once, tangled in the sheets and each other, and Remus couldn’t remember whether he’d been the one dreaming of a green flash of light, or if it had seeped behind his closed eyelids, a renegade from someone else’s nightmare.

But as 1985 slowly opens its eyes to a frostbitten dawn and clear cold light, Harry sleeping safely in the other room beneath Snitch-patterned sheets, Remus feels the weight of his lover’s hand low on his hip and his best friend’s knee tucked against his shins, and he can’t imagine living any other way.

“Mmmm,” he sighs, as Sirius, waking up, brushes his fingers beneath Remus’ T-shirt, slow and suggestive. There are few boundaries between them now. Lily blinks her eyes open, shaking her head against the pillow, a messy halo of red hair that Remus finds daily in the shower drain and his sock drawer.

“Insatiable, your boyfriend,” she murmurs, wiping sleep from her eyes. “Don’t know how you stand it.” 

“Want to stick around?” Remus asks softly, as Sirius’ hand travels lower.

“Mmm. Not today, I think. It’s my bed, too, you know. I ought to kick you out.” She sits up, yawning. “I’m going to make coffee. Want some?” 

“Don’t know why you still bother asking,” Sirius says, kissing Remus’ neck. “The day neither of us wants coffee is the day you know we’ve been taken over by pod people, like in that Muggle movie.” 

“Enjoy yourself,” Lily says. “Don’t wake Harry, please.”

Remus nods and then gasps. Lily rolls her eyes fondly.

A blissful fifteen minutes and then the sound of small feet pattering in the hallway: ah, parenthood. Remus and Sirius quickly wipe themselves off and pull sheets up and shirts over heads and then watch the door, waiting.

A long pause, and then three loud knocks. Smiles, absurdly proud, crack across both their faces. 

“Come in!” Sirius calls.

A tiny blur of a body races across the room and catapults into bed. “I knocked!” Harry announces.

“Yes,” Remus says. “That was very good. Thank you.”

“I want to go on the broom,” Harry says immediately. “It’s New Year’s. You promised.”

“But it’s so cold outside,” Sirius says, feigning an exaggerated look of surprise. “Are you sure you really want to?”

Outrage and incredulity battle for control over Harry’s face and Remus has to stifle a laugh. Lily appears in the doorway, two steaming mugs in hand. “Let Uncle Remus and Uncle Sirius have their coffee first, Harry. Then they’ll take you out.”

“Oh we will, will we?” Sirius asks, arching his eyebrows. 

“Of course you will,” Lily replies lightly. “You promised.”

“You _promised_ ,” Harry repeats. 

“Yeah,” Sirius says, smile softening his face, and ruffles Harry’s hair. Fuck, how Remus loves him. How he loves all three of them. “Yeah, we promised.”


End file.
